OCI 2014 Leadership Retreat: One Thing

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Outpost Centers International

Morning Worship

Frank Fournier

One Thing I Desire

And I want to look at the context a little bit.

We're going to look at that verse 1 more time.

But first I want to establish the context.

And it's strange in my mind in any case as I look at the context.

And then as we look at the verse they don't seem to come together they don't seem to be related.

Verse 1, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?

Though a host should encamp against me, though there was to be an army coming after me, my heart shall not fear.

Verse 5, for in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion.

In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.

He shall set me up upon a rock." Now, obviously King David here has all kinds of confidence.

And the more he focuses on God and sees how great he is, the less afraid he can be about the circumstances of life, or even if an army is encamped against him, he is not afraid.

So, the question I need to ask this morning, what is it that gives him that much confidence?

I mean, can you navigate through life and there's no fear and there's no depression and there's no...

How should I say are you disturbed sometimes?

Apparently David wasn't now you read some other Psalms you find that sometimes he was but he had 1 thing 1 place where he could turn to.

And if you look at verse 4, which by the way, our title is 1 Thing I Desire.

Can it be possible that you could narrow things down to 1 thing?

When Jesus said to Martha, 1 thing is needful, how many things were needful?

When the Apostle Paul said, 1 thing I do, how many things did he have for a goal in life?

Can we actually boil things down to 1 thing?

Well, if God does it, do you think He means it?

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

Now I don't know, when I've been looking at this for a while and thinking, oh wouldn't it be wonderful I could just sit in the church all the days of my life.

I mean what kind of building could you sit in and be impressed with it so long that you would like to stay there all the days of your life?

Peter's Basilica, now that's an impressive building.

I've been there and there's a lot of things to look at and a lot of things are awesome in there, but I tell you what, how long do you think I could sit there and not get bored?

So what in the world is the Apostle, I mean King David saying here?

1 thing I have desired of the Lord to sit in the temple all the days of my life.

It hardly makes sense, humanly speaking, that we could sit in a building and be content to sit there.

But friends, we have to realize what King David is saying here.

He's thinking of the sanctuary of the Lord.

And if you go back to the wilderness sanctuary, you know that everything in there represents Jesus.

He's thinking of something more than that.

The resurrection of the Lord is infinite.

These are the things that he's meditating on and he is seeing in these things the beauty of the Lord.

Okay, I'll have you turn now to Job chapter 11.

Have you ever tried to wrap your mind around God?

Have you ever tried to think in terms of eternity past?

I mean, we can think of eternity future because we can say, well, I'm alive today and I'll just keep living and living and living forever and ever.

When you think of God that he's lived forever and ever and ever and ever, How far away is that?

When you think about the size of the universe, I was listening to PRI radio the other last week and they were saying there that this Earth weighs sextillion tons.

Now, I don't know what sextillion tons is.

But you get these astronomers and they show you slides and they'll take a picture of Betelgeuse and they'll compare it to the Earth and what's the Earth look like?

It isn't anything, it's a speck of dust, right?

Can you wrap your mind around stuff like that?

And this is what the King David was saying.

He wanted to sit in the temple of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord.

Alain Bautista

One Thing You Lack

I want to take us to our study this morning, continuing on our theme, 1 Thing, 1 Thing Thou Lackest.

But before we start, Steps to Christ, page 93 says, Never open the Bible without prayer.

Father, which art in heaven, Give us wisdom now to understand and help us, dear Lord.

Discern, give us discernment from on high.

Anoint my lips and my thoughts in Jesus' name, amen.

Let us open our Bible to the book of Mark.

Book of Mark, chapter 10, verse 17 to 21.

And continuing with our thought of 1 theme this morning, it says, when you're there please say Amen.

And When he has gone forth into the way, there came 1 running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

Verse 18, And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

19, thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother.

Verse 20, and he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

21, then Jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him, 1 thing thou lackest.

Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven.

And come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Verse 22, and he was sad at that saying, and went away greed, for he had great possession.

Here's the story, this ruler, we're going to be building up on verse 21 mostly, but we need to understand where Jesus is also coming from.

Says this ruler had a high estimate of his own righteousness.

Says he did not really suppose that he was defective in anything.

And he said yet he was not altogether satisfied.

He felt the want of something that he did not possess.

Could not Jesus bless him as he blessed the little children and satisfy his soul want?

You know I think about our spiritual journey and a few months ago me and Brother Stephen and Pastor Stephen and Brother Frank were talking in the car and we said, everyone has a story.

Don't we all have a story, brothers and sisters?

And his story is, he needed something to be satisfied.

Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, 1 thing thou lackest.

Go thy way and sell whatsoever thou hast.

Give to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven.

And come, take up the cross and follow me.

Christ looked into the face of the young man as if reading his life, searching his character.

He loved him and he hungered to give him that peace and grace and joy which would materially change his character.

Are we all on a spiritual journey, brothers and sisters?

He wanted something that Jesus had, that children would just come to him.

We're here to identify that this morning.

Jesus said, if thou will perfectly go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." Christ read the ruler's heart.

Only 1 thing he lacked, but this was a vital principle.

Do we need more of the love of God in our soul?

This lack, unless supplied, would prove fatal to him, whose whole nature would become corrupted.

If we do not have the love of God in our hearts, will we end up corrupted?

We have seen this in certain ministries, seen it in some of our friends.

And we are in danger of going to that corrupted being.

By intelligence, selfishness would strengthen that he might receive the love of God.

His supreme love of self must be surrendered.

All should consider what it means to desire heaven.

And yet to turn away because of conditions laid down what is going on and and Pastor Stephen talked about yesterday what does it really cost us?

Are we willing to give 2.5% of what is really important?

Brother Frank yesterday morning talked about dwelling an hour each day.

And also, even 1 second of Thinking about negative things could affect our whole day.

Negative thinking pattern that we go through every single day.

Think of what it means to say no to Christ.

The ruler said, no, I cannot give you all.

Yes, we are all in the ministry, we all love God.

True sanctification through the working out of the principle of love.

And he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him.

The life of him in whose heart Christ abides will reveal what?

So when we love God, things come out that are naturally not ourselves.

The character will be purified, elevated, ennobled, and glorified.

Pure doctrine will blend with works of righteousness.

Heavenly precepts will mingle with holy practices.

Because God is love and He has that transforming grace.

Perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect conformity to the will of God.

We are to be sanctified to God through obedience to the truth.

Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God.

This is what I like about this quote we are not yet work perfect we are still in a process we are still in a journey we are still having a story and it says But it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin and advance to perfection from glory to glory.

It says, Great possibilities, high and holy attainments are placed within the reach of all.

All of us can reach this through the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

Those who gain the blessing of sanctification must first learn the meaning of self-sacrifice.

The cross of Christ is a center pillar which hangs the far more exceeding eternal weight of glory.

If anyone will come after me, Christ said, let him deny himself.

Alistair Huong

One Thing is Needful

And as you probably picked up a little bit, there is some self-supporting blood running in my veins.

I went to school, graduated from Washington Hills Academy and college, and I taught there.

And Frank, I apologize about the farm thing, but I can't say I'm disappointed.

We've been looking for a farm manager for many years.

But I also taught at Lower Brook Academy for some time, and Ms.

Wanda Sarr, of course, is my teacher, counselor, mentor in many ways, and also my wife Deborah, she also worked at Wildwood for a number of years, and now she works for Asian Aid, 1 of the newer members of OCI.

And now I'm director of Audiverse, And I've been involved with GYC and all these things.

So self-supporting work, ministry work, the Lord's work, there's no escaping it for us.

And so I'm just so delighted to be with you here today.

And those testimonies last night just thrilled my soul.

So I'm not gonna do a little promo for Audiverse here, but just 1 tidbit, that is, for those of you who might be interested, I do have brochures.

So if you have people back home that might be interested, you can talk to me later.

But time is ticking, and so I'd like to get into the message from God's word, because that's what's most important.

So I invite you just to bow your heads with me as we pray.

Father, this morning I pray for your spirit to guide us, to speak to us through the Bible, and may we hear a word from the Lord for ourselves, for our own souls.

And may your spirit direct the words that they may hit its mark this morning.

Look with me in your Bibles in Luke chapter 10.

Luke chapter 10, we'll read beginning in verse 38.

It says, Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?

Bid her therefore that she help me.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things, but 1 thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part from which or which shall not be taken away from her.

So Jesus and his disciples had just departed Jericho and they had taken this journey to Bethany.

We're told by the desire of ages that this was his first visit to Bethany and the first time to Martha's house.

I don't know where Lazarus was, but he doesn't factor in the story at this point.

Middle Eastern culture, courtesy is of utmost importance.

You remember Abraham, when he saw these strangers come, he killed the fatted calf and he fed them.

And of course, Jesus, later on, the story or the symbol of the foot washing having significance as well.

So Martha sees Jesus and his entourage of disciples, weary, dusty, after a long walk from Jericho, and she does what any sensible, reasonable hostess would do in that culture and that was she's going to take care of her guests.

She's going to do her very best because this wasn't just any guest.

So just put simply, what was Martha doing?

She was actually fulfilling her duty, wasn't she?

What she was accomplishing were good and appropriate things.

But in doing her duty, She neglected Jesus.

In doing, in serving Jesus, she forgot Jesus.

It's interesting because in my line of work today, I do a lot of editing of sermons.

I probably listen to more sermons than any of you.

And there are moments that have been more than 1 occasion where I'm just pushing, right?

And I'm pushing through this quota of sermons I just got to get them out meet our deadline and get things done and so I'm just like zipping through and I'm just cutting things out and I'm posting them and then a few weeks later I get a testimony an email of someone that says you know this sermon by such and such a speaker, it was exactly what I needed.

It gave me a whole new perspective of who God is and his character.

And I'm like, I listened to that sermon, and I actually listened to the whole series by that preacher, But I received no blessing.

In serving Jesus, in preparing his word, I neglected the living word.

Is it possible that for those of us in this room, and I'm guessing, maybe this is an inaccurate assumption, but this is the assumption I'm working off of, and that's I'm talking to a room full of people who can relate with Martha.

People who are movers and shakers, who take responsibility seriously, who believe in the Lord's work and is gonna put all of our effort into making sure that the enterprise of whatever ministry we're a part of is gonna go forward successfully.

So to all of us Martha's in this room, can it be that in the busyness of doing the Lord's work, we actually forget the Lord?

Martha actually comes and confronts Jesus.

She doesn't just stay busy in the kitchen feeling sorry for herself.

She takes matters into her own hands and she comes and she has a few choice words for the Lord.

Verse 40, Martha was cumbered about much serving, and that's interesting, cumbered.

She wasn't just occupied, she was burdened.

Other translations, modern translations, says distracted.

Maybe we can insert distressed, with much serving.

So that she comes and says to the Lord, Lord, dost thou not care?

Another incident in the Gospels where people say these words to Jesus.

To my knowledge, and I could be wrong on this, to my knowledge, The only other time is on the Sea of Galilee, in that little boat on the storm-tossed sea, the disciples rowing for their life while Jesus slept peacefully after a busy day.

They turned to him and said, Lord, do you not care that we perish?

Jesus calmly gets up, peace be still, calms the storm, turns around, and he has a few choice words for his disciples.

You see, Martha's statement here, just like the statement of those disciples, was a statement of unbelief.

She came to Jesus with the gall, perhaps unknowingly, to accuse the Lord of not caring for her.

The Bible tells us that we can come to Jesus, we can cast our cares upon him because what?

May we never come to the point that we feel justified in accusing Jesus of not caring for us.

Because look, that is a statement of unbelief.

It's more serious than just saying, oh Lord, don't you see what I'm doing for you?

Don't you see that I'm burdened with cares?

It's more than that because Martha goes on to prescribe to Jesus what he should do.

You remember when Peter tried to prescribe to Jesus what he should or shouldn't do?

Boy, Martha doesn't really realize what she's doing here.

But Can we agree though that she had good motives, right?

She's trying to serve Jesus, but in doing all of these good things, she unknowingly has now gotten to a point where she is in hot water, on thin ice, if you will.

Why, how did Martha get to this point where she felt this way?

How, why, how did the brain get discombobulated to the point where we observe Christ, he's in our house, and we feel discontented towards him.

One Thing I Do

Father in heaven, I ask that you will speak to us today.

I claim that promise that you gave to Moses those many years ago.

Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.

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